Ableton Live 10 Public Beta Now Available & Wavetable Synthesizer First Look

The moment that many users of Live 9 have been waiting for is here. The public beta version of Live 10 is now available.

Join The Public Beta

Anyone using a registered Live 9 Standard or Live 9 Suite version can now join the public beta. Here you can make an impression about the new features, the new interface as well as the developer team helping to eliminate the last bugs. To get access to the latest version, please visit the Ableton Centercode where you can join the program.

This release is not only a good opportunity for users to get to know the software better, but also for the entire development team. So they can see how musicians use Ableton Live 10 and can find and solve the last critical problems.

What’s New in Ableton 10

With the latest Live 10 version, the Berlin-based company introduced four new exciting devices (Wavetable Synthesizer, Echo,…) and improved, re-designed sound library. Beside this, the developers enhanced the workflow and includes new creative features like the capture feature where you can recall ideas in form of MIDI information without pressing the record button.

How Good Is The New Wavetable Synthesizer In Ableton 10?

Ableton 10 includes many optimisations as well as a new wavetable Synthesizer. Can Wavetable throw the top dog Serum or Massive from the podium? No, this which is unfortunately not fulfilled here. Both third-party plugins are still a strong addition with the release of Ableton Live 10.

Serum by Xfer Records, for example, is a very complex wavetable Synthesizer, where Ableton’s new instrument tries to explain it in a simpler way. Like Serum, Wavetable has two oscillators with a good selection of factory wavetables and a a sub-oscillator. Slightly slimmed down here are also the Oscillator effects. Where Serum can excite, Wavetable has only three different (FM, Classic & Modern). Also missing here is an import possibility for own wavetable or a graphical interface with which you can paint your own oscillators. Ableton has not confirmed yet whether this import feature will be delivered in the future.

Where there are clear differences is with the filters. Ableton gave his Wavetable Synthesizer five different filter types that all sound very good. Serum, however, clearly contains several types of filters. Next you will find three envelopes as well as two LFO’s. Serum has also three envelopes but four LFO’s what gives musicians even more modulation options. What I liked better is the easy-to-use modulation matrix in Wavetable. Clicking on a parameter activates a new row in the matrix. The whole thing is very simple and intuitive.

After the first few weeks with Wavetable, I can say that Ableton has build a very good sounding Synthesizer that offers many possibilities without being complicated. Some features are missing in various areas and if Ableton add them in the future, Wavetable can become a very powerful synth. In this sense, Ableton has built an instrument here that still has potential upwards.